The role of land-use change

Even if livestock agriculture could technically be achieved with extremely low emissions, and currently it cannot, other land uses may be more profitable for New Zealand farmers once the costs of greenhouse gases and excessive nutrient run-off are fully accounted for. These could be extension of widely used existing land uses - forestry, native regeneration or existing fruit or arable crops - or currently untried or experimental uses.

This talk briefly reviews some evidence on the potential for more forests - including in response to the Freshwater Reforms - and then discusses why we might want to go beyond existing alternatives and what would be needed to facilitate more diverse land use.